The evil spirit incident in the Bunkyo residential district ultimately came to an end in an extremely bizarre manner.
Regarding this case, the Metropolitan Police Department and the upper echelons of the Japanese government chose to remain tight-lipped, maintaining a unified public statement that it was a violent explosion caused by old gas pipes.
As for the dozen or so police corpses at the scene with their gruesome deaths, and the “monster” that had been reduced to pulp by snipers, these were classified as top-secret, with any information leakage strictly prohibited.
However, the truth cannot be hidden forever.
In this age of information explosion, absolute suppression simply does not exist.
For those high-ranking officials and corporate tycoons who truly stand at the pinnacle of the power pyramid and have the ability to access frontline intelligence, a storm—invisible yet capable of overturning their worldview—had already quietly swept in.
Legend has it that the leader of the demons of Mount Ooe from the Heian period, Ibaraki Doji, has appeared in the modern world.
She can manipulate hellfire, withstand bullets with her physical body, and fly freely through the high skies…
She even possesses the precious ability to transform ordinary humans into powerful, bloodthirsty, and cruel evil spirits.
These pieces of intelligence, accompanied by blurry videos and photos from the scene, spread like a virus through underground channels in Tokyo and even the entire world, triggering intense panic and equally intense greed.
Of course, the instigator of all this, the “mastermind” who created this chaos, Hibiki Tachibana, was currently sitting securely in his metropolitan high school classroom, wearing black-rimmed glasses, looking earnestly at the textbook in his hands, as if completely unaware of the turmoil in the outside world.
The brilliant midday sun shone through the clear windows, lazily spilling onto his desk, reflecting the face of a slightly delicate youth, pale and sickly from long-term sleep deprivation.
On the surface, he was just an ordinary male high school student.
However, to say he was actually studying would be a huge mistake.
In reality, all his focus was immersed in the system notifications echoing in his mind.
[Detected that a mysterious event related to “Ibaraki Doji” is fermenting…]
[Human Order Energy + 1]
[Human Order Energy + 1]
[Human Order Energy + 2]
…
Just last night, the “Ibaraki Doji” he played was like a pebble, its angle and force carefully calculated, thrown by his own hand into the stagnant, dead-water-like human society on this planet.
Now, this small stone had finally begun to stir ripples that were growing larger and larger.
Representing humanity’s awe, fear, curiosity, and desire for “mystery,” “Human Order Energy” was continuously pouring into his system account with a momentum that was slow but never stopped.
In just one morning, his originally empty “0” Human Order Energy reserve had successfully broken the triple-digit mark.
“System, what was the exchange rate for Human Order Energy to saint quartz again?” Hibiki Tachibana asked silently in his mind.
“Reporting, Master! The current exchange ratio between Human Order Energy and saint quartz is 100:1! According to the current growth trend, it is estimated that in one to two weeks, you will be able to accumulate the saint quartz needed for a ten-pull summon!” The system’s lively and playful electronic voice immediately rang out in his mind.
“Only one ten-pull every one or two weeks…”
After hearing the system’s broadcast, Hibiki Tachibana’s brows furrowed involuntarily, and he couldn’t help but sigh in his heart.
“Although I know it’s very difficult to obtain Human Order Energy in modern society where mystery has completely faded… but this speed is still much slower than I imagined. Is it because various forces are still desperately blocking the news, and the general public is completely unaware?”
“It seems that just creating one explosive event is not enough; follow-up operations and hype must keep up. Otherwise, waiting half a month or even a month to pull cards once, these days will be too hard to bear.”
As expected, everything is difficult at the beginning.
The hardships of the pioneering period are truly a bitterness that one must taste in any world.
Just as Hibiki Tachibana was sighing to himself and beginning to conceive his next plan to stir up trouble, the crisp sound of the lunch break bell rang.
The teacher on the podium announced the end of class with a sense of relief, and the originally quiet classroom instantly came to life.
Because Hibiki Tachibana transferred in only in his second year of high school, and because he was too lazy to manage any interpersonal relationships, he remained in a state of near-invisibility in this class and even the entire school, with no friends.
However, that was fine.
For him, it perfectly avoided ineffective socializing with peers whose minds were full of romance and club activities, saving a lot of trouble.
Of course, in the eyes of others, his solitary appearance was likely due to being isolated by the class cliques, right?
Hibiki Tachibana didn’t care about this at all.
He calmly took his smartphone out of the drawer, unlocked the screen, and prepared to pass this long lunch break.
He noticed that on the main screen of his phone, an app icon he was incredibly familiar with, yet felt a trace of strangeness toward, had appeared at some point.
“Isn’t this our veteran mobile game, Fate/Grand Order… I didn’t expect to see it again in this form.”
“The system really isn’t confined to that old computer at home; I had expected as much.”
Hibiki Tachibana understood.
After all, the system’s voice could even sound directly in his mind; the so-called computer terminal was more to accommodate his usage habits as a modern person.
However, compared to using his consciousness to directly manipulate the complex database, making it into a visual mobile app like this was more convenient to use.
“Ta-da! Welcome to the Heroic Spirit Summoning System—Portable Mobile Terminal!”
Accompanied by his action of tapping the app, the system’s cheerful voice sounded again.
“This is a mimic app I specially tailored for you, Master, so you can operate it anytime, anywhere! In the eyes of others, it’s just an ordinary, unremarkable mobile game~”
“You can check system messages, search the system warehouse, or perform exciting summoning rituals after you have saved up enough saint quartz here!”
“Well done.”